India to have 348 million Internet users by 2017: Cisco

India has the fastest Internet traffic growth globally and is expected to have 348 million users by 2017, a study by networking giant Cisco said.

According to Cisco's Visuals Networking Index (VNI) forecast (2012-17), Internet traffic in India will reach 2.5 exabytes per month in 2017, up from 393 petabytes per month in 2012. One exabyte equals 1 million terabytes.

"In India, there will be 348 million Internet users in 2017, up from 138 million in 2012," the VNI forecast said.

Globally, by 2017, Internet users will swell to 3.6 billion, which will be more than 48 per cent of the world's projected population of 7.6 billion. In 2012, worldwide Internet users stood at 2.3 billion against a population of 7.2 billion, it added.

"The good news is that Internet traffic growth in India is the fastest globally," Cisco VP (Global Technology Policy) Robert Pepper said here.

While there is a great willingness on the part of the government and the industry to drive broadband penetration and ensure Internet access, but still there is a lot to be done. As people, devices and data get connected, the possibilities it opens are immense, he added.

On Internet traffic in India, VNI said, IP (Internet Protocol) traffic will grow 6-fold from 2012 to 2017 in India, a compound annual growth rate of 44 per cent.

"In India, IP traffic will reach 2.8 exabytes per month in 2017, up from 454 petabytes per month in 2012," it added.

Internet video users will skyrocket to 113 million (excluding mobile-only) in 2017 from 16 million in 2012, the index said.

"In 2012, in India, non-PC accounted for 10 per cent of the IP traffic, but by 2017, the non-PC share will grow to 53 per cent," it added.

Portable devices like smartphones and tablets will contribute 40 per cent to IP traffic in 2017 from 3 per cent in 2012. TV's share will be 10 per cent and machine-to-machine (M2M) modules will contribute 3 per cent, it added.

The report expects mobile Internet traffic to record a healthy growth by 2017.

"Indian mobile data traffic will grow 4 times faster than Indian fixed IP traffic from 2012 to 2017. Mobile was 3 per cent of total IP traffic in 2012, and will be 32 per cent of total IP traffic in 2017," it added.

There will be 2 billion networked devices in 2017 in India, up from 1 billion in 2012, Cisco's VNI said.

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